A DOCSIS system, such as the system 100 shown in FIG. 1, can be used to deliver high-definition digital entertainment and telecommunications such as video, voice, and high-speed Internet to subscribers over an existing cable television network. As shown in FIG. 1, traffic (e.g., data, video, and voice signal) is transferred over a cable network 130 between a headend/hub 110 and cable modems (CMs) 120, which are located at subscriber premises. The cable network 130 can take the form of an all-coax, all-fiber, or hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network.
There is a need for efficient solutions to expand the capacity in the network 130 as more traffic is transmitted between the headend/hub 110 and CMs 120 due to, for example, an increase in the data rates demanded by CMs served by the network 130 and/or delivery of expanded services such as video-on-demand.